We seem to get alot of people coming to this section and asking them same question, and they all get the same reply. So i thought i'd make a section on the good and the bad, the required and the unrequired. Hope it helps !
Some meanings to start off with.
Bright = Opposite of dark, little bass and lots of treble.
Dark = not alot of treble in the music, bassy.
Warm = Not flat, they have boosted bass and enhanced midrange. Not for monitoring purposes
Monitors/Monitoring headphones = Used in studio's as they have a very flat frequency response (no frequency is louder than the other) so are a true representation of the recording.
1) Never, ever, purchase Bose headphones, nor Bose speakers, nor Bose anything. Just don't. Bose have a bad record of changing the sound there speakers emit to make it appear that they are good, they use trickery that the usuall person at a first listen may find nice - it is only once the person has herd the original recording, through some true headphones that offer a real representation of what the sound should be like that the apparentness of Bose's doings are obvious, so i'm warning you in advanced, and saving you money. You are purely paying for some high tech crap and a brand name with Bose, stear clear.
2) There are several types of headphones, but here's how i generally class them:
- Headphones that go over the head
- In ear headphones (earphones, earbuds etc)
- HiFi Inear/Over head
- Gaming over head
- Open headphones, Closed headphone
- Supra Aural, Circumaural
Supra Aural means the headphones sit on your ears, whereas circumaural try to enclose your entire ear.
Open back means you can hear everything around you, and the music escapes from the headphones easily. They offer better depth and soundstage.
Closed back are the normal headphones you would be used to. Little sound escapes, the music is more dense in texture as a result.
Soundstage, how well you can point in the direction you think you can hear instruments. A good soundstage will have you thinking instruments are far away, close, infront and behind you, even above you.
Detail, is how many small sounds you can here, and how well you can here them. Things like plectrums moving up guitar strings, people breathing. Resonances off close by walls in the recording studio etc.
3) So, i've told you never to get bose. I guess you need telling what too get now, so here it is. With there individual characteristics (These are not set in stone !, just the brands GENERAL sound signature)
Sennheiser (Circumaural) - Pretty dark headphones (Not alot of treble) especially on the Hi-Fi series, quite bassy and smooth midrange. Very comfy on high end models. Sennheiser also do good inear headphones.
Audio Technica (Circumaural)- Pretty similar to sennheiser, but there faster headphones, they involve you more with the music in my opinion. The high end Audio Technicas are comfy headphones, also do good inear headphones.
Grado (SupraAural)- The kings of rock, these arn't really good for anything but rock music, but for that they excel at, very bright brash headphones, textured bass. Uncomfy.
Allesandro (SupraAural)- Same as grado, they look identical too. Uncomfy.
Beyerdynamic (Circumaural) - BIG BASS, especially on the DT880, DT770 series, however some are very bright. Comfy.
AKG (Circumaural)- Exquisitley detailed and revealing, most awesome soundstage you will find, very little bass. Nice midrange. THE KINGS OF COMFORT
Shure (inear only)- Very warm earphones, lovely sound - not so detailed however. Comfy
Etymotic (inear only)- Nice sounding earphones, rather stark and clinical though. Fairly comfy.
Ultimate Ears (inear only)- Better than etys in the non clinical part, but still less forgiving and warm than shures. Fairly Comfy.
Stax - I doubt any of you will ever get any, i wish i could, if you can afford them. Excellent !
Denon - D2000 and D5000 are both very comfortable, nice sounding headphones.
Razer - Relatively good gaming headphones, uncomfortable
SteelSeries - Good gaming headphones, can't comment on comfort.
Gaming headphones are less good in sound quality as there Hi-Fi type headphone friends, however they usually feature genuine surround sound for movies and gaming.
Now ALL of these will benefit from an headphone amplifier. I would recommend any of the Ray Samuals Audio amps, Graham Slee are good too, apogee duet, headamp, the Valve amps off ebay are good too. These are all expensive though. You NEED one with AKG headphones, sennheisers definitely benefit from one, the rest run OK on soundcards so it's not a necessity.
If you are using them with your PC. You must have a good soundcard, ones using the X-Fi (Creative cards, Auzentech etc) chip are good, preferably get M-Audio, or Juli are good too.
[EDIT Courtesy of Apokalipse ! (changed slightly)]
Now i'm just going to list headphones i would reccomend, for hi-fi (music use) These are the best headphones for music, however they are generally more expensive.
Sennheiser HD650 (good for dance music) , HD600 (good for dance), Entire HD500 series. The HD280pro are cheep and good aswell.
AKG K701, K601, K501
Audio Technica. ALL of there headphones above the ATH-A500. The cheeper headphones are good too, but i find the ATH-A500+ best.
Grado - All of them if you listen to rock, or metal music.
Beyerdynamic - DT880, DT770 for bassy music.
Denon - D2000, D5000 Good for all music
Shure - The SE530's are one of my favourite inear headphones. The best sounding out of all speakers and headphones i have EVER heard for dance music.
Ultimate Ears - All of them, Only if you are confident you like a flatter less warm sound
Etymotic - All of them, Only if you are confident you like a flatter less warm sound
Some meanings to start off with.
Bright = Opposite of dark, little bass and lots of treble.
Dark = not alot of treble in the music, bassy.
Warm = Not flat, they have boosted bass and enhanced midrange. Not for monitoring purposes
Monitors/Monitoring headphones = Used in studio's as they have a very flat frequency response (no frequency is louder than the other) so are a true representation of the recording.
1) Never, ever, purchase Bose headphones, nor Bose speakers, nor Bose anything. Just don't. Bose have a bad record of changing the sound there speakers emit to make it appear that they are good, they use trickery that the usuall person at a first listen may find nice - it is only once the person has herd the original recording, through some true headphones that offer a real representation of what the sound should be like that the apparentness of Bose's doings are obvious, so i'm warning you in advanced, and saving you money. You are purely paying for some high tech crap and a brand name with Bose, stear clear.
2) There are several types of headphones, but here's how i generally class them:
- Headphones that go over the head
- In ear headphones (earphones, earbuds etc)
- HiFi Inear/Over head
- Gaming over head
- Open headphones, Closed headphone
- Supra Aural, Circumaural
Supra Aural means the headphones sit on your ears, whereas circumaural try to enclose your entire ear.
Open back means you can hear everything around you, and the music escapes from the headphones easily. They offer better depth and soundstage.
Closed back are the normal headphones you would be used to. Little sound escapes, the music is more dense in texture as a result.
Soundstage, how well you can point in the direction you think you can hear instruments. A good soundstage will have you thinking instruments are far away, close, infront and behind you, even above you.
Detail, is how many small sounds you can here, and how well you can here them. Things like plectrums moving up guitar strings, people breathing. Resonances off close by walls in the recording studio etc.
3) So, i've told you never to get bose. I guess you need telling what too get now, so here it is. With there individual characteristics (These are not set in stone !, just the brands GENERAL sound signature)
Sennheiser (Circumaural) - Pretty dark headphones (Not alot of treble) especially on the Hi-Fi series, quite bassy and smooth midrange. Very comfy on high end models. Sennheiser also do good inear headphones.
Audio Technica (Circumaural)- Pretty similar to sennheiser, but there faster headphones, they involve you more with the music in my opinion. The high end Audio Technicas are comfy headphones, also do good inear headphones.
Grado (SupraAural)- The kings of rock, these arn't really good for anything but rock music, but for that they excel at, very bright brash headphones, textured bass. Uncomfy.
Allesandro (SupraAural)- Same as grado, they look identical too. Uncomfy.
Beyerdynamic (Circumaural) - BIG BASS, especially on the DT880, DT770 series, however some are very bright. Comfy.
AKG (Circumaural)- Exquisitley detailed and revealing, most awesome soundstage you will find, very little bass. Nice midrange. THE KINGS OF COMFORT
Shure (inear only)- Very warm earphones, lovely sound - not so detailed however. Comfy
Etymotic (inear only)- Nice sounding earphones, rather stark and clinical though. Fairly comfy.
Ultimate Ears (inear only)- Better than etys in the non clinical part, but still less forgiving and warm than shures. Fairly Comfy.
Stax - I doubt any of you will ever get any, i wish i could, if you can afford them. Excellent !
Denon - D2000 and D5000 are both very comfortable, nice sounding headphones.
Razer - Relatively good gaming headphones, uncomfortable
SteelSeries - Good gaming headphones, can't comment on comfort.
Gaming headphones are less good in sound quality as there Hi-Fi type headphone friends, however they usually feature genuine surround sound for movies and gaming.
Now ALL of these will benefit from an headphone amplifier. I would recommend any of the Ray Samuals Audio amps, Graham Slee are good too, apogee duet, headamp, the Valve amps off ebay are good too. These are all expensive though. You NEED one with AKG headphones, sennheisers definitely benefit from one, the rest run OK on soundcards so it's not a necessity.
If you are using them with your PC. You must have a good soundcard, ones using the X-Fi (Creative cards, Auzentech etc) chip are good, preferably get M-Audio, or Juli are good too.
[EDIT Courtesy of Apokalipse ! (changed slightly)]
Now i'm just going to list headphones i would reccomend, for hi-fi (music use) These are the best headphones for music, however they are generally more expensive.
Sennheiser HD650 (good for dance music) , HD600 (good for dance), Entire HD500 series. The HD280pro are cheep and good aswell.
AKG K701, K601, K501
Audio Technica. ALL of there headphones above the ATH-A500. The cheeper headphones are good too, but i find the ATH-A500+ best.
Grado - All of them if you listen to rock, or metal music.
Beyerdynamic - DT880, DT770 for bassy music.
Denon - D2000, D5000 Good for all music
Shure - The SE530's are one of my favourite inear headphones. The best sounding out of all speakers and headphones i have EVER heard for dance music.
Ultimate Ears - All of them, Only if you are confident you like a flatter less warm sound
Etymotic - All of them, Only if you are confident you like a flatter less warm sound
